Just as they were about to enter the Main Outer Coffin Chamber, Li Zhi and Ye Fan arrived by bicycle at the dirt path outside the Vegetable Greenhouse base.
Before Ye Fan could do anything, Li Zhi immediately whispered, "Ye Fan, don't stop. Keep riding."
The two of them then passed through the area along the dirt path, quickly leaving the Vegetable Greenhouse base far behind.
They only stopped once the greenhouses were no longer visible.
As soon as they stopped, Ye Fan asked, "Brother Li, why didn't we stop just now?"
Li Zhi said with lingering fear, "The two of us just took a trip past the Ghost Gate."
If not for his extensive experience, he really would not have noticed that gunmen were lying in ambush behind the earthen walls of the Vegetable Greenhouse.
Ye Fan was shocked and asked, "What happened?"
Li Zhi said, "Just now, after we entered the Vegetable Greenhouse base, someone was secretly pointing a gun at us. The moment we showed any sign that we had noticed them, the hidden gunmen would have shot us dead."
Ye Fan said, "They actually have the nerve to do something like that?"
Li Zhi turned to look Ye Fan in the eye and said, "Little Leaf, remember what I'm about to tell you. Not everyone respects life. In some people's eyes, our lives are no more valuable than the chickens and ducks at the market. They can kill us whenever they want."
Those words left Ye Fan rather silent. He had already prepared himself for the worst, but he had never expected reality to be ten times worse than he had imagined.
There was danger to his life at any moment.
If he had not come with Li Zhi, Ye Fan could not imagine what kind of trouble he would have encountered alone. Just thinking about it made him shudder.
Seeing that Ye Fan was in low spirits, Li Zhi patted him on the shoulder and said, "The security measures are so tight that they're even willing to kill to silence anyone who finds out. Looks like we came to the right place this time. Something important is definitely being unearthed."
Li Zhi then walked to the side of the road, tossed his bicycle into the ditch, and said, "Little Leaf, hurry up and eat something to restore your strength. There'll be a good show tonight."
Ye Fan asked curiously, "What good show?"
Li Zhi laughed. "A good show of people killing one another."
Just as Li Zhi had said, the Main Outer Coffin Chamber had already been opened by those people.
Before their eyes were box after box of Horseshoe Gold, box after box of bamboo slips, and several weapons that looked extremely valuable: knives, swords, halberds, spears, shields, and even six suits of armor.
Near the coffin, various Bronze Ritual Vessels had been neatly arranged into the shape of a Battle Formation.
It seemed that the tomb's owner had been a general of extremely high status in life and had received an extravagant burial from the Emperor after his death.
For some unknown reason, the large lacquered coffin inside the Outer Coffin Chamber had collapsed.
Lying inside was a skeleton dressed in armor. Where its right arm should have been was an arm carved from white jade.
It seemed that the general had been left with only his left arm before his death.
After he died, the Emperor had ordered people to use the Jade Arm to complete his mutilated body, allowing him to be buried whole.
A golden sword hung from the skeleton's waist. It was entirely golden, as though it had been forged from gold.
The Jade Arm's hand was clutching a Jade Scroll.
After the Scholar obtained the Jade Scroll and Golden Sword, he rushed over in great excitement.
He took out the Jade Scroll and immediately began snapping pictures.
Brother Qiang quickly went over and asked, "Scholar, what is this?"
The Scholar seemed extremely excited. He said enthusiastically, "This is the real treasure. A treasure that can make people live forever."
He failed to notice that Brother Qiang had already gestured to the people behind him to kill and silence him.
The things inside the Main Outer Coffin Chamber were simply too valuable.
Brother Qiang no longer wanted to share the treasures with the Scholar according to their agreement.
Therefore, he felt that the Scholar's mission as a partner had been completed.
Suddenly, the sound of an electric saw rang out again inside the Main Outer Coffin Chamber.
After a loud whirr, someone cut Brother Qiang's head off from behind with an electric saw.
Then, another tomb robber who had intended to sneak up on the Scholar from behind was stabbed straight through the chest from behind with a chisel.
His heart had been pierced as well.
He collapsed to the ground instantly.
Seeing this, the Scholar tore off the gas mask covering his face, revealing an elegant, scholarly face in his thirties wearing a mocking smile.
The two men who had acted also tore off their gas masks and said to the Scholar, "Mr. Xu, what should we do next?"
The Scholar said, "Other than this Golden Sword and this Jade Scroll, I won't take a single one of the other treasures here. They're both yours."
"Thank you, Mr. Xu," the two men said excitedly.
The Scholar surnamed Xu then put on a pair of thick gloves and picked up the Jade Scroll and Golden Sword.
But before he could walk out of the Outer Coffin Chamber with them, the Golden Sword suddenly released a wisp of sword qi that pierced straight through his forehead.
Then, as though it had completed its mission, the Golden Sword crumbled directly into a pile of powder, like dried-out tofu dregs.
The Jade Scroll also turned to dust under the impact of the sword qi.
The other two tomb robbers, who had been carrying out the Bronze Ritual Vessels and Horseshoe Gold, were instantly frightened witless.
Without even looking back, they ran outside.
But before they could escape the sloping shaft, they collapsed to the ground without warning and stopped breathing. It seemed that their souls had been erased in an instant.
There had been six tomb robbers, plus the Scholar surnamed Xu, making seven people in total.
By now, five of them had fallen underground.
Only the two tomb robbers outside, holding guns and standing guard, were still alive.
Night fell,
The Vegetable Greenhouse base became silent and desolate. Even the chirping of insects and calls of birds gradually ceased, as though a sinister aura were slowly enveloping the entire base.
It made the Vegetable Greenhouse base exceptionally quiet.
One of the tomb robbers standing guard outside carefully left his post and climbed onto the wall of the neighboring greenhouse in just a few steps.
The other man, crouched behind a straw curtain atop the earthen wall, was observing the surrounding movements from above.
"Brother Wu," the man suddenly called out, startling the other person.
"Changgui, why did you leave your post and come over here?" Jia Xiaowu slowly lowered the gun in his hand and immediately scolded Zhang Changgui with a stern expression.
"Brother Wu, don't get angry. I'm not trying to slack off. Don't you think it's been too quiet tonight? No matter how careful they are inside the greenhouse, it's impossible for them not to make any sound at all. I'm worried that something might have happened down there."
Zhang Changgui's post was closer to Greenhouse No. 4. Before the sun had set, he could still faintly hear the sound of an electric saw coming from inside, but after night had completely fallen, not another sound had come out.
More than an hour had passed, and he still had not heard anything.
By rights, they should have made some noise while talking and moving things around inside.
Jia Xiaowu said unconcernedly, "With Brother Qiang and the Scholar there, we don't need to worry. Things must not have gone smoothly while they were retrieving the artifacts, and the Scholar is being stubborn again, refusing to let Brother Qiang and the others use force."
Zhang Changgui also felt that Jia Xiaowu's explanation made sense. If the Scholar surnamed Xu had not insisted on damaging none of the artifacts, they would have emptied this ancient tomb long ago. Why else would they have continued working here for three years?
Still, Zhang Changgui was extremely grateful to the Scholar surnamed Xu. If they had not excavated the ancient tomb according to his methods, their income would probably have been less than a tenth of what it was now.
The broken artifacts they had once paid little attention to became priceless treasures after the Scholar surnamed Xu made some minor repairs and processed them.
After chatting idly for a few more moments, Jia Xiaowu said to Zhang Changgui, "Changgui, you'd better go back and stand guard properly. We can't let outsiders sneak in. I think those two young men who passed by on bicycles today were very suspicious. We can't let them take advantage of a gap."
Zhang Changgui said disdainfully, "Young people these days are only good at talking. If they really saw what we're carrying, they'd probably be scared into wetting their pants."
Jia Xiaowu laughed. "Don't be so absolute. What if one of them is a hothead?"
Zhang Changgui laughed. "That would be even better. I like hotheads. I'll let them know that a head can never be harder than a bullet."
Killing people seemed to place no psychological burden on them at all.
Another hour passed. As the night grew late, even the streetlights in the distant village went out.
Zhang Changgui, standing guard outside Greenhouse No. 4, still had not heard a sound from inside, so he went to Jia Xiaowu's side once more.
Jia Xiaowu wore an unhappy expression as he said, "Changgui, you've abandoned your post again. Do you want Brother Qiang to deal with you?"
Zhang Changgui said with some concern, "Brother Wu, I feel that something isn't right. There's no one outside now. Should we go in and check?"
Jia Xiaowu rose from the pile of straw curtains and looked around at the pitch-black surroundings. After seeing no one, he said, "Fine. Go and come back quickly."
Zhang Changgui then slipped into Greenhouse No. 4.
The lights inside the greenhouse were off, so he could only feel his way toward the vertical shaft by the faint moonlight shining through the plastic sheeting.
Dim light was coming from inside the shaft.
Zhang Changgui leaned over the shaft entrance and called down, "Brother Qiang?"
When he received no response, he called again, "Monkey?"
There was still no response.
With his extensive experience, Zhang Changgui realized that something terrible might have happened below and immediately tightened his grip around the pistol in his pocket.
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